Protect
by SgtMac
Summary: Regina and Emma, who are still hiding their not-quite-established relationship from everyone, offer to watch one-year-old Neal so that Snow and David can have a romantic weekend away, but nothing ever works quite so calmly or simply for any of them. A light-hearted (very slightly angsty) SQ, Regal Believer and Charming-Mills family story.
"I don't know," Snow says, her vivid green eyes wide with panic. "I don't think I'm ready to be away from him for this long."

"He's a year old," Emma gently reminds her mother.

"And it will only be two nights that you're away from him," Regina notes far less kindly. "If you ask me, I think that the cost to me is far greater than the cost to him for you being away."

"What cost is that?" David asks, frowning. He's for this plan, had actually been the one to ask Emma for help with it. Truthfully, he hadn't expected her to involve Regina - though he thinks considering how close and almost inseparable they have become, he should have. Especially after she had reminded him that she needs to work an all-night shift sometime this weekend in order to finish up some of her more necessary (and by that, she means Mayor mandated) paperwork, he'd understood the need for Regina's assistance. Still, the word "cost" tends to send shiver up his spine considering the many different kinds of prices that this family of his (extended family included) has paid over the many long weird years that they've been walking these roads together.

Regina rolls her eyes dramatically at him. "The cost to me is that I won't actually be able to pretend that you two idiots aren't doing what I'm sure you'll be…doing." Her face screws up into an expression of disgust before she finishes with, "It's been a year, Snow. It's time to…separate a bit."

"Said by the woman who has issues with letting anyone go ever," Snow shoots back and it could be a harsh stinging statement about their shared past and the loss of more than one lover along the way, but they've come too far now and instead, the comment runs like water over Regina and she just smirks.

"True," Regina agrees with a lifted eyebrow. "But do try to remember that because of that, you were able to give birth to Bae with good drugs -"

"Neal," David corrects, sighing in exasperation; Regina has never been overly fond of that name (she has nothing against Henry's father and doesn't begrudge Henry his regrets over not getting to know Neal better, but she finds the naming of little Neal odd considering the role that he had - for whatever his reasons - played in Emma's heartbreak; on the other hand, she knows that she's the last one to really assign blame here, and this always sends her off into entirely too many thoughts and emotions which she would rather not have). Still, David tries to keep her honest - for all the good it does.

Regina will always do her own thing...whatever that might be.

"My curse had something to do with that," Snow states.

"Perhaps so, but let's remember that your curse doesn't exist unless I bring us here in the first place," Regina reminds her with a tight smile.

"So we're patting ourselves on the back for that?"

"I believe I have something with batteries back at home that can do the whole patting thing," She smirks at David's scandalized look before continuing, "So no, dear, in this case that's not at all what I'm doing."

"And we're way off topic now," Emma says with a loud put-upon sigh. "Mom, Dad, you two are going away to the beach cabin for the weekend. What you do there, I don't actually want to know. But as for the kid, I'll have him tonight and Regina will take care of him tomorrow night."

"And I'll help both times," Henry says as he comes down the stairs, his entirely-too-long now brown hair still dripping wet from a shower. After shrugging his shoulders at Regina's half-scolding look thanks to the water on the floor, he slips behind the bar and offers her a smile when she places a warmed plate of bacon and eggs in front of him. He notices other empty plates around the counter, which means that she'd cooked for the company.

Things are interesting and odd and truly wonderful these days, he muses.

"Well, if Henry's here," David says, then shrugs when both women glare at him like he's an absolute idiot. "Then, I think Snow, we should do this."

It's the worst attempt ever at pretending like he's just going along with someone else's crazy plan and for a moment, Regina is rather uncomfortably reminded of having - very drunkenly - watched an extremely randy David follow after Snow on the night of their honeymoon. As Snow had been more focused on her former stepmother than she'd been on the attentions of the man who had desperately wanted to consummate their new marriage.

She snorts and waves off the questions about the odd sound.

"You're sure he'll be fine?" Snow asks again, the frown overtaking her face.

"I raised Henry," Regina reminds her, just barely stopping herself from adding a less than kind new name for Snow on to the end of the sentence. "And I'm quite sure that your daughter has changed enough diapers at this point to not be the usual menace to anything walking, talking or breathing that she usually is so really, Snow, do try not to worry; we have this under control."

"You're a pretty awful partner," Emma states, scowling at her.

Regina turns her head. "I thought that was fairly complimentary."

"You would." Then to Snow. "Please, Mom? Let us do this for you. I mean, come on, think about it, right? We have Regina here actually being willing to promise us all a whole night of not being a complete asshole. That seems like a limited time offer to me, maybe even a one-time offer. You should take it."

"She's right," David concurs and then grins over at Regina like he's a happy stupid fool (he is, ugh, and for rather obvious reasons, too). In response to his boyish charm (which doesn't work at all on her, thank you very much) she opens up her right palm to show him a bit of fire dancing upon her olive skin.

He just keeps grinning.

"Fine," Snow sighs, ignorant to the entire exchange. "But I want a call -"

At the same time, Regina and Emma say, "No."

Grunting in irritation, Regina snaps the fire away, and turns to face the younger woman. "No calls, Snow. You two morons are supposed be pretending you have a clue what to do in a bed without my help. And as a hint, it shouldn't involve thinking about me. I'm okay with you not doing that."

"When does the asshole timer start?" Snow asks, glancing over at Emma.

"Once you two actually leave; I think I have to touch a button somewhere on her," Emma replies with a laugh (she then pointedly ignores the knowing expression she gets from Regina for that). "Now, since that's settled, David's truck is packed already with a suitcase for the weekend. So -" she leans forward and takes her somehow still sleeping baby brother from Snow, her entire body language immediately softening as she cradles him against her (he's still too young for them to bond on a person-to-person level, but it's impossible not to love this happy little guy). "Get the hell out of here and don't show back up until Monday morning."

Snow looks out the window towards the truck, her eyes widening as realization hits her. "That's what's under the tarp?" she asks, looking at the massive blue piece of plastic stretched across the bed of the vehicle. Then to David, her head cocked in awareness, "You teamed up with them for this?"

He smiles sweetly.

And earns himself a kiss for his efforts.

Which earns both of them two groans.

"Go," Emma urges again. "Mom, Dad, we've got this."

"Fine," Snow says. Then to Regina, "Monday morning?"

Regina offers her a horrifically plastic smile instead of a response. Which makes Emma chuckle and shake her head in bemusement because she knows how hard that actually was for Regina. "Wow," she says, unable to not point out the obvious. "You resisted a really terrible response there."

"Shut up, Swan," Regina responds, her eyes narrowing at Emma. Turning back to David and Snow, she says, "Now get out of my house. All of you. The baby as well for now." Then to Henry, "But not you. You can stay. I still like you."

"Cool," he says and returns to his breakfast, acting like all of this is normal.

It is.

"Monday?" Snow urges again.

"If I say yes, will you go?"

"Yes."

"Then yes. And Emma, unless you burn down your apartment again, as much as I've come to somewhat enjoy you -"

Regina wags her eyebrows suggestively and Emma groans. And then changes the subject before her parents can see it and start asking questions.

"That wasn't my fault. That was Maleficent's fault."

"It was," David agrees.

"Yes, I recall; I warned you that drinking with Maleficent was a poor idea."

Emma chuckles, "You did."

"Regina shrugs "In any case, I don't want to hear from you until tomorrow."

"One of these days, Regina, I promise you that we will find a way to extend your asshole timer past twenty-four hours," Emma promises her as they walk towards the front hall and Regina opens the door for everyone to leave.

"You can try. But the timer will never work for you."

Rolling her eyes at the two of them, Snow starts again, "Regina -"

"Monday, Snow."

And then she shuts the door behind them.

Separating her from the Charming family.

They're her family now - in more than one way.

But sometimes, they're...annoying.

Amusingly so, she has to admit to herself, smiling as she does so.

"Mom," Henry laughs at her, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. He runs his fingers through his hair, pushing it back and away from his green eyes.

She shrugs and then says, "What should we do today?"

"You think I'm ready to jump Kitt?" he asks.

And oh, there's her baby boy...still lurking there inside the teenager.

"I still can't believe you named your horse after a car," she grouses.

"A talking car."

"Yes, I'm aware." She shakes her head. "That is absolutely the last time that I let Emma show you any of the absurdity that has rotted away her brain."

"Mom," Henry grins. "You wouldn't stop her if you could."

"You know nothing."

"I know everything," he tells her, meeting her eyes. "Now, Kitt?"

She sighs and then stops forward and places a hand on both sides of his face, gazing at him for a long moment before then leaning in to kiss him on the forehead. "Yes, my little prince, I think I can teach you how to jump Kitt today."

He smiles at her like she's the best mother ever and it's everything.

Everything.

* * *

Henry's in the shower cleaning off the dirt and straw from the stables when the phone on the desk in her office rings. After taking a sip from her glass of red wine, Regina checks the caller ID and sighs. She picks up the receiver, brings it to her ear and lightly scolds, "I asked you not to call, Miss Swan."

Not too long ago, that name had been a way to show a wall between the two of them - nowadays, there are no walls and it's usually meant to tease Emma.

And to show off some annoyance time-to-time.

Truth be told, she's not all that irritated to hear from Emma, though.

For...obvious reasons.

"Maybe I'm calling because I was thinking about you," Emma says cheekily.

"Yes, well, that's because you don't know what one-time mistake means."

"I kind of got confused after the twentieth time," the blonde admits.

"What do you want, Emma?" Regina demands grouchily, her mood quickly shifting. Not because Emma is wrong - she's not and the whole idea that their evenings spent together would be one-offs has long since been exposed as the very clear lie that it is - but rather because Emma just doesn't know how to not present everything about this situation like it's so easy and obvious.

Like they're easy and obvious.

But have they ever been?

All right, so maybe they're obvious...

She almost groans aloud at just the thought of this.

"Okay, okay; I have an issue," Emma replies, suddenly sounding hassled.

It's enough to cool Regina off. Because for as much as the moment before had been about them, this moment right now is all about business.

And that business more often than not these days is protecting Storybrooke.

"What kind of issue?" Regina prompts.

"Punk teenagers lighting cars on fire."

Regina scowls; that's not at all what she had been expecting to hear - hardly super-villain like. "Really? Would you like me to go deal with the children?"

"No, Your Snarky Ass Majesty, I would like you to open your front door."

"What?"

"Please? Just...please?"

Her brow furrowed, Regina yanks the door open and there's Emma, a now awake baby Neal in her arms. He's a beautiful little boy with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes and he regards Regina as he always does, with a kind of fascinated instant glee. This is a child without fear and she adores him for it.

"I have to go deal with these little bastards. And not by eviscerating them," Emma sighs, running her free hand through her wild locks. "So as much as I wish I was stopping by for you to tell me it can only happen this once…for the twenty-first time –" she ignores Regina's half-assed glare. "I need your help."

"Well first, I haven't said that recently," Regina replies. "Second, I wouldn't have eviscerated them. Hardly seems to fit the crime of annoying you."

"And third?"

"I don't really have a third. Ruby can't watch him tonight?"

"The kid likes you best," Emma shrugs. "After me, I mean. So stop pretending this is a burden when we both know that you adore having him here."

"Yes, fine. Give." After a kiss to the top of his head, Emma hands him over to her, and immediately upon being in her arms, little Neal starts yammering away in excitement and clapping his hands in pure joy. "My favorite Charming," Regina murmurs.

"Sure he is," Emma smirks. Then, "Two hours. And thank you?"

"For watching your brother."

"For being someone I can always count on."

"Emma," she replies, and it might be a statement or a plea or perhaps it's just amazement at how far she's come and how far they have.

How many miles they've all traveled to be at a moment like this one.

A soft smile is her only response, and then Emma is looking around to ensure that no one is watching them, and then she leans in and steals a kiss. Something sweet and desperately wanting, and Regina knows that she should pull away from it, and stop this madness before it fully consumes them both, but she also knows that she doesn't actually want to.

So she lets Emma kiss her and she pulls the ridiculous woman closer to her body and holds her tight against her until she finally mutters, "Go."

"Okay," Emma says, and then there's one more kiss. Then another.

God, this is getting so much harder.

She's starting to wonder why they're not just...

Right...because people might not understand and then...then what?

And what if this breaks down the middle and she loses this family? Loses Emma?

What if -

"Hey," Emma says softly, arms around her, just holding her.

Like she knows.

Of course she does.

Regina allows the holds for several more moments, then takes a breath, and nods. "Go," she says again, this time with more confidence.

"Okay." Emma finally steps backwards, smiling softly before she turns and leaves.

When the door finally closes behind her, it's just Regina and Neal. Bouncing him in her arms, she carries him into the living room where she places him on the carpet. And then watches as he slowly starts army crawling away from her.

"He's here early," Henry notes, looking down at Neal, his hair dripping wet once again (it occurs to her that Henry seems to always be in the shower these days, and that is a conversation that she and Emma are going to have to have sooner or later), having thankfully missed the interaction with Emma.

He already thinks he knows too much (he does), anyway.

"Emma had…an issue with some hooligans. So he's with us for a bit."

"Cool," Henry notes and then drops down beside Regina.

Sometimes, she thinks Henry would have been a great big brother given the chance, but she supposes it's enough he's a great…nephew.

And a great son.

An arm slipping around him, she pulls him close, and hugs him.

Thankful that he still lets her.

* * *

Two hours pass, then three and so finally, the anxiety overtaking her, Regina calls Emma's cell phone and there's no answer, and so she starts to worry.

A little bit – not a lot. Not too much. Just enough.

With Neal dozing off against her shoulder (he really is a good sleeper, she muses as she lightly scratches her nails over his back) she calls Ruby and when Ruby knows nothing, she asks for Leroy so she can get the scoop. He might not like her too much, but he's always willing to shoot off his mouth.

Apparently, Emma hadn't been exaggerating about the vandalism streak going on, but it's gotten worse and these little punks are now trying to light everything on fire that they can. Which means it could be awhile before -

Something hitting the outside wall of her house is what pulls Regina out of her thoughts about Emma and when she might be dropping by again. And then there's glass shattering inwards and fiery bottle coming in through the now opened up window. Regina's dark eyes widen immediately, tracking as the blaze almost immediately grows, orange flames racing up the white walls.

"Henry!" she screams out; she needs both of her hands to put out this quickly growing fire and she doesn't dare put baby Neal back down on the ground.

More importantly, she wants her son near her where she can verify that he's safe and not in the path of this arson attack. So she screams for him again and uses magic to make it echo and then her sleepy little prince is tumbling down the steps and his face is contorting into something like shock and horror.

"Mom?"

"Take Bae and move to the middle of the room away from the windows; I'm going to try to put this fire out -" she just does at the last minute see the shadow on the wall and manage to side step a brick flying through the shattered window, glass sprinkling across her arms. "Stand back," she hisses.

Obediently - knowing this isn't the time to argue - he clutches Neal against him and then watches as his mom focuses and then just pours all of her magic into putting the climbing flames out. It takes a few seconds but then it works and she's turning and has her hands on both boys. "Are you okay?"

"Are you?" he demands in return, his eyes on the bloody scratches on her arms; there's a dribble of red running down her jawline - a cut formed by the glass.

She looks down, takes in the scrapes (a few are deep and she'll need Emma to heal them) and then she shakes her head, like it's pointless to dwell on such things at a time like this. "Yes, fine." She turns her attention to Neal and Henry watches in amazement (because years ago, he knows for a fact that this would have been him that she gazed at like that and it hits him in that moment that she still does) as she looks her godson over, checking every inch of him for any sign of a wound. But he's still sleeping and she needs him not to be so she pats his cheek and apologizes and waits for his bright blue eyes to open.

They're bleary but otherwise focused and she lets out a sigh of relief.

"Are they still outside?" Henry asks, peering towards the shattered window, but not taking any kind of step towards it; he knows his mother well enough to know that she expects her former instruction to still be in place for now.

"Probably. Stay inside and let me -"

"Mom, it's not safe," Henry insists. "We should wait for –"

Regina scoffs indignantly at that. "I don't need to wait for anyone; I'm not letting some little cowards endanger my family," she growls and then she's ripping her front door open and standing on her porch like she's an unholy angel of hell and then she's growling, "You want fire; come and get it."

Her hands light with flames, and even though her arms are scratched up and the blood on her face is now at the edge of her jaw, she looks dangerous.

And deadly.

A smart person wouldn't fuck with her right now.

But well, these idiots came after her to begin with...

Someone laughs from somewhere around near her and Regina sharply turns on her heel , and it's only her self-control and the fact that he has a baby face that keeps her from lighting a very stupid sixteen-year-old-boy on fire.

But then she's hoisting him up in the air and tossing him backwards against the trunk of one of her trees, and oh, she wants to hurt this boy so very much.

But she won't.

Because she's not that woman, anymore.

So she swipes her hands and he's covered in thick vines, which grab at him and restrain him. And then she's placing a foot (absent her typical rather dangerous heels, alas) delicately on his chest and she's saying, "Give me one reason that I don't rip your heart out of your chest for trying to…kill me."

He swallows. "We were just having some fun."

"Fun. Right. My son is in that house. So is my godson. You threw fire through my window. Fire that could have killed two innocent little boys."

"I…" he's not laughing now, scared out of his mind instead.

"What's your name?"

"Jonathan."

"Jonathan What?"

"Hexter."

"I don't know you."

"Why would you? I'm from the orphanage. You know, the place all us kids who got yanked here without families ended up," he shoots up at her, his eyes suddenly defiant. There's anger in his expression - such pure hatred.

Her own anger fades away quickly as she looks at him, and then she's yanking her foot off of him and stepping back and away from him. "Get up."

"Are you going to kill me? Yank my heart out and crush it?"

Her jaw works anxiously for a moment (which is when she finally notices the blood there, and roughly brushes it away) before she says, her voice cold and her composure just barely holding, "No. I'll let the sheriff deal with you." She says this right as Emma's car comes screeching up and then Emma is racing towards her, the sheriff immediately reaching for her, but falling just short.

"Is everyone -" Emma trails off, eyes wide and worried. Because three of the people she loves the very most were in this house.

"They're fine," Regina assures her, a hand settling on Emma's forearm despite the audience; she meets Emma's eyes and gently squeezes. "Everyone is fine." She looks back at Jonathan and frowns deeply. "Are all the children that have been causing the problems tonight…are they all from the orphanage?"

Emma glances over at the boy, a look of understanding sweeping across her face as she takes him in. "Yeah, now that you mention it…yeah, they are."

"I suppose we'll deal with that on Monday," Regina says tiredly, a hand in her hair. "But for now, make him go away before I remember he almost burned two young boys alive. Before I feel the need to do something about it."

"I didn't -"

"Away."

"You heard the Mayor," Emma says as she cuffs Jonathan, all the while making sure to emphasis Regina's current title as opposed to her Enchanted Forest one - because this boys' action are about here, and not there. Whatever had occurred in that other land, they're a long way away from there now.

And it is time for people to start moving forward and figuring out how to live.

Even the young ones like this kid.

"I'll call you in a bit," Emma says, unable to stop herself from reaching out and squeezing Regina's hand tightly. That's when she sees the scratches there.

"I'm fine," Regina says immediately, knowing that this isn't the time for this. " _We_ all are fine, Emma; I promise."

"Okay," Emma allows. She smiles softly once more, and then grabs pushes Jonathan towards her car, practically throwing him into the backseat of it with another sulky boy who is already seated there, his hands also in cuffs.

Regina watches and thinks that yes, these children need to be dealt with.

But that's for Monday.

For now, all she cares about is Henry and Neal.

When she steps back into the house, she ignores the broken glass, and pulls them both close to her body, nearly crushing the son who is now so much bigger than his mother and again checking the child who treats her like she's something perfect and good – something wonderful and without evil.

He's just a baby and he's the son of her once mortal enemies.

And the sister of…well, that's not important right now.

What is important is that to him, she's just Aunt Regina.

His godmother.

Someone good and worthy.

Someone he instinctually knows will always protect him.

Even if he doesn't yet know what he needs to be protected from.

She hugs both boys tighter.

* * *

"You realize," Emma says tiredly when she shows up on the front doorstep at just after three in the morning, a yawn breaking up her words. "I didn't get a single call from my parents at any point tonight and the fire was pretty high in the sky a few times which likely means that they were totally getting -"

Regina wrinkles her nose. "I'd really prefer not."

"Right. You mind if I crash here?"

"You know where the guest room is."

"Guest room," Emma repeats, an eyebrow up.

"You really have energy for something different?"

"No, but I never actually mind waking up next to you."

With a knowing smile that spreads rapidly into something soft and adoring, Regina extends a hand to her, and then - after a few gentle kisses - they're both making their way up the stairs; together they check in on Henry (he's sleeping face-down but that doesn't step either one of his mothers from dropping a gentle kiss down onto the crown of his head) and then they slide into the Master Bedroom together.

Where baby Neal is sleeping, blissfully unaware of everything around him.

Unaware of the way his older sister carefully checks him over.

Unaware of the way - once Emma is assured that he's completely okay (not that she doubted it; she knows that Regina would never allow harm to come to her baby brother, but he still is her baby brother and there are things you have to verify for yourself) - the two women slowly undress each other.

Unaware of the way Emma checks his godmother over, light yellow magic healing away the scratches she finds scattered across her lover's body.

Unaware of the soft kissing that happens just before the two women fall together onto the bed, both of them far too exhausted for more than just holding each other. Both of them just wanting to be close to each other.

He sleeps soundly, happily.

Unaware of the love stories that he's too young to notice.

* * *

Monday comes quickly and thankfully, the rest of the weekend had been uneventful so by the time a bewildered Snow and David show up and Emma is explaining what had happened, Regina is ready with a proposal to allocate more resources to the orphanage and to look for ways to home the boys so that they're not just lost lonely forgotten souls. She'd shown it to Emma earlier in the day and the sheriff had been all for it, expressing angry dismay that she herself hadn't noticed the sorry pathetic state that these kids had been.

There are easily-found excuses for sure and there are reasons why and why and how and how not, but neither woman had any real interest in them.

And Snow, after just a glance is agreeing with them.

Regina might be the fully-accepted Mayor of Storybrooke now, and she could certainly make this decision all on her own if she wanted to, but something like this works better if all of the major leaders in town are fully behind it.

"So this involves these kids being involved in community tasks?" Snow asks as she cradles Neal to her breast, all while still flipping through the proposal.

"Yes. It will be good for them to be seen as more than -"

"Lost," Emma finishes.

"The more people see them around town, maybe the more accepting they'll be." She frowns. "That's what you people keep telling me, anyway."

"And it's working. The last poll we did of your popularity was up almost nine percent month over month. The people of Storybrooke actually really do like Good Mayor Regina," Snow insists, her voice entirely too cheerful.

Regina can't help but sneer in disgust at that.

So Emma changes the subject, "Well, how was the weekend?"

"Do you actually want to know?" David queries.

"No," Regina says. "I don't deserve that. No one does."

"You know," Snow starts.

"It's okay," Emma says. "And I should be going. Much work."

"Coward," Regina snorts.

"You really want details?" Emma asks her.

"Of course not. But I also don't run…"

"There's a lot of surfaces in that house," Snow muses.

"Feel like running now?"

"Yes," Regina groans. "But because I'm working on that…nice thing…"

"In baby steps," Emma mutters.

Another glare and then, turning towards Snow, "I'm going to invite you idiots over to the stables after school today; Henry is learning how to jump Kitt."

"Yeah?" David asks, sounding excited. "We'll be there."

"If you must." And then she's tickling Neal's chin again before walking away from them, her heels clicking as she walks down her long hallway.

"I think that's goodbye," Snow notes.

"Her asshole timer ran out a bit earlier than expected," Emma observes with far too much affection than can be easily hidden. "Too much socialization."

"Still no forty-eight hour clock."

They share a buoyant exuberant laugh together and then Emma is wondering how she ever survived without all of this.

Even with the insanity and absurdity of it all.

And Snow? Well she's noticing the way her beautiful little girl suddenly seems incapable of taking her eyes off of Regina.

She wonders if they're coming around to telling everyone, and thinks won't that be nice when they can all stop pretending.

* * *

Jonathan shows up at the stables that afternoon.

Glaring and angry.

Until he sees the former Evil Queen walking towards him, Henry close at her side, and a small blonde haired boy in her arms.

She steps in front of her son and meets his eyes, "Jonathan."

"Mayor Mills," he says, his voice stuttering, and then he almost visibly flinches back and away from her because it suddenly strikes him that maybe that was the wrong thing to say to her. "I mean, Your Majesty? Ma'am?"

"Regina. And this is my son, Henry. And my godson, Neal."

"I'm sorry," Jonathan says, horrified as he looks at his could-be victims. As he thinks about what he had almost done. And realizes what could have been.

"I know you are. Now we have something in common," Regina replies quietly, her voice oddly devoid of judgment.

"So what's my punishment?" he asks, trying to find his defiance once again, but failing miserably as he looks at the two boys. "Mucking stalls?"

"Hard work and therapy with nature."

"Did that actually work for you?"

"To a degree. I did a lot worse than you did. A lot worse. Which...you know. But I have fought to try to make amends. And to be a better person. That and the healthy friendships and relationships I fought to build have helped me."

He starts to refute the idea that this could work but his eyes are on Neal as Regina pulls the boy into his arms and he's nodding and whispering, "Okay."

He thinks this is a waste of time, but he can't live with this.

He can't be someone who would kill a child.

That's not who he wants to be.

So when the woman who was one of the greatest villains his world had ever known is telling him to walk with her and talk with her, he does so.

And he listens to every word she says when she says there can be more for him than just an orphanage and a dead end.

He listens when she says that he can be more.

He listens and he hopes.

* * *

"Can I have my son back?" Snow queries, flicking her eyes away from Henry as he slowly walks Kitt back and forth. The horse isn't nearly ready yet for anything big but he's finding his steps. Which seems like quite the metaphor.

"Ask nicely," Regina replies as she bounces Neal - much to his absolute delight - in her arms.

"Regina, this is the child stealing thing we talked about."

"He's my godson."

"That was meant to deter the stealing, not encourage it."

"You're an actual moron, Snow."

"And you're an actual lunatic, Regina."

"Be nice, you two," Emma says as she and David approach. She extracts Neal from Regina and tickles him which causes the little boy to let out a cry of delight.

"If we must," Regina replies, smiling at her, the affection unmistakable.

"You must," Emma chuckles, then tickles her baby brother again.

Snow sees the warm greeting between Regina and Emma (it's a smile, and maybe it wouldn't mean much to most people, but their eyes linger and there's this kind of happiness that overcomes both of them and it's so obvious and unavoidable to anyone with eyes), and that just about does it. She grumbles, "We all know about you two. Everyone does. I hated it when I first figured it out. I like it now. But please, stop annoying me with it." And then she's reaching out and taking Neal from Emma. "This one is mine."

Emma and Regina snort at the same time before both realizing what Snow just said, and looking back at her with matching gazes of pure surprise.

"Well I guess that's that," David sighs.

"You knew?" Emma asks.

"You two are about as subtle as Henry in the bathroom," Snow notes.

Which draws an uncomfortable look from both of his mothers.

Because, yeah, that conversation really is coming.

"You're okay with this?" Regina asks again, quickly changing the subject.

"I am," Snow says with a nod of her head. "Because Emma wants it, and it makes both of you happy which is what I have always wanted." She shrugs her shoulders, trying to play off the depth of her fears. "And because a few days ago, you protected my son just as you've protected my daughter."

"I'm here and safe," Emma reminds them dryly.

Snow puts an arm around her; Emma rolls her eyes.

Softly, Regina says, "I'd never let them be hurt; either one."

"I know," Snow replies, then turns back towards the field.

Regina starts to turn with her but then feels Emma's hand slip into hers at the same time that she notices Neal looking at her over his mother's shoulder, his eyes intent on her. So she winks at him right as she squeezes Emma's hand.

He giggles and Emma kisses her on the cheek.

A moment later, they're all clapping along with Henry and Kitt.

 **-Fin**


End file.
